Bates Family Part 14 - Party in Pink

[Pianokeeper]

11 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

Is it just me?  Rep Webster looks really thin and ill in that picture.

I don't think it's a good enough picture to really tell.  Could just be sleep deprivation or a bad day at work.  It's hardly Derrick Dillard level "call the doctor!" (at least to me).

[Palimpsest]

4 minutes ago, Pianokeeper said:

I don't think it's a good enough picture to really tell.  Could just be sleep deprivation or a bad day at work.  It's hardly Derrick Dillard level "call the doctor!" (at least to me).

I agree.  It's just that he usually seems to have a fuller face and much better color.  Perhaps he left his greasepaint at the Capitol.

 

[Kelsey]

4 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Oh, I understand letting kids get cake all over them. Babies general cover themselves with food at that age, I just don't get the trend of buying an entire cake for a baby to play with. It seems to be a recent trend, at least in my area. Even when my oldest daughter was a baby it was rare for people to purchase or bake an entire cake for the kid to play in, they gave a cupcake or a slice of cake. Much like gender reveal parties, I think this is a trend I will never understand. 

She more than likely didn't buy the cake that Allie smashed.

Birthday cakes here are almost always bought at Publix. If not, they are bought from a local bakery (people with more money or like to support local) or another supermarket. But generally, Publix. You see cakes from other stores (Wal-Mart, Winn Dixie) usually if they are bought for work functions or very large functions. I've never seen a homemade birthday cake done here (except by one friend who is a professional cake decorator). I'm not saying some people don't make homemade cakes but it's really not that common here.

Before anyone says it, I have been to hundreds of birthday parties for adults and kids (big family), friends, coworkers etc. People from the upper middle class as well as those who are receiving benefits all have one thing in common- Publix birthday cakes for the most part. 

ETA: you can usually see the box that the cake comes in or the cake server is a dead give away. 

[Palimpsest]

It is obviously a merchandising technique to add a smash cake to a birthday cake order, and I'm sure Publix still makes a profit.  This is obviously why giving baby a whole cake to smash is such a growing fad  delightful new tradition.

I'm such a kill joy.  I'd rather pay less for just one cake.  And even if a smash cake is "free" when one buys a birthday cake - why not give the kid a slice of cake and freeze the smash cake to eat another day?   It just seems very wasteful to me.

[elliha]

I had never heard of smash cakes before this thread, they have not caught on (yet) here in Sweden. Giving the child a piece to play with on the first birthday, sure, that happens but not a whole cake. I am also a bit cheap so even if I got a cake for free I would still only give the child a piece but what others do I don't care about. We didn't have cake on my daughter's first birthday, we just had some other treats and only 2-3 guests. I was just not in the mood to do anything elaborate for someone who would rather chew on her own socks than care about any decorations. Now at 4 I feel much more motivated.

I make my own cakes and it is common here. It is common to buy cake too but I still think making your own is more common. Mine are famous for being very tasty but usually rather ugly as I hate putting a lot of effort into decorations. I usually cover it with cream (yes, we often use cream not frosting) and put some sprinkles on and candles if it is a cake for a child. Last year's cake had a horrible color because I flavored it with vanilla powder which was made from ground up vanilla pods. My daughter got hold of the can and put half the can in the batter for the cake. The flavor was lovely but it turned grey...

[Kelsey]

12 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

It is obviously a merchandising technique to add a smash cake to a birthday cake order, and I'm sure Publix still makes a profit.  This is obviously why giving baby a whole cake to smash is such a growing fad  delightful new tradition.

 

Yeah, they're definitely still turning a profit because it's not a cheap store. It's closer to Whole Foods prices than Wal-Mart prices. But it is an insanely popular store in Florida. 

[HereticHick]

53 minutes ago, Fundie Bunny said:

I have 17 first cousins, and we are anything but fundie. It really isn't that big of a deal

Did you have them by the time you were 11 months old??? My point is that, chronologically, this is just the tip of the iceberg

[clueliss]

Pinterest has somethign to do with the smash cake thing as well.  I hadn't heard of this until I started seeing it there.

[catlady]

when my nephews were babies, it wasn't called a smash cake, but The Baby's Cake.  Mom would get a good-quality decorated cake for the guests (her local bakery was really good), and the birthday boy got a 4-inch round, of lighter consistency and less frosting with no decoration.  the candle went in this little cake, was promptly removed after singing, and the birthday boy would proceed to eat his own cake with his hands as he saw fit until he was full.  about half of it was wasted, but no one encouraged him to just wreck it.

sometimes I wonder what those pinterest people are thinking (I don't do pinterest, so what I do hear of frequently sounds a little wacky to me). 

[Fundie Bunny]

26 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Did you have them by the time you were 11 months old??? My point is that, chronologically, this is just the tip of the iceberg

Well, I had 12 by then 

I wanted to add a yet at the end of my post, but the edit button apparently didn't want

[feministxtian]

My now 32 year old daughter had a "smash cake" at her first birthday...in 1983. If I remember right, it was something like a Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite theme. Why the hate? I did it for my other two kids (boys) too...one had a Barney theme and the other was either Batman or Ninja turtles. That would have been in 1988 and 1991. 

Decorating: My big furniture is in neutral colors...but the accents are in bright colors...desert colors, red, orange, blues, greens, even a splash of purple in the bathroom. I LOVE bright colors...especially now, living in a smaller space. My mother was the queen of neutrals...BLECH. EVERYTHING was some shade of beige, taupe, brown. 

[Palimpsest]

40 minutes ago, feministxtian said:

My now 32 year old daughter had a "smash cake" at her first birthday...in 1983. If I remember right, it was something like a Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite theme. Why the hate? I did it for my other two kids (boys) too...one had a Barney theme and the other was either Batman or Ninja turtles. That would have been in 1988 and 1991. 

Decorating: My big furniture is in neutral colors...but the accents are in bright colors...desert colors, red, orange, blues, greens, even a splash of purple in the bathroom. I LOVE bright colors...especially now, living in a smaller space. My mother was the queen of neutrals...BLECH. EVERYTHING was some shade of beige, taupe, brown. 

No hate here, just mystification.  And I'm making a note to wear something that is easily washed and very hard to get stained the next time I'm invited to a baby birthday bash.  If the baby starts smashing their cake I'll also move well out of range if possible.  How very messy.

I love bright and saturated colors.  I have a bright pistachio green bathroom and a purple bathroom.  The walls I mean - with all white fixtures and towels.

I do have a deep and abiding hatred for the color pink, however.  Any shade of pink.  Sorry.

What is this - the Cake Smash Wars?

 

[DaisyD]

Add smash cakes to peanut butter and breastfeeding I guess...

[Ali]

I know the grocery store chain Vons in southern California offered free smash cakes in the late nineties. I don't know if any grocery stores offer free smash cakes where I currently live. I never looked because it always seemed wasteful to me. I made a homemade cake for my daughter's first birthday and gave her a slice. I plan on doing the same when my second has his first birthday. 

[justmy2cents]

3 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Good lord, by my calculations, Allie Jane isn't quite 1 year yet and she already has THIRTEEN first cousins-- 11 Websters, 2 Bates --plus 2 on the way:

 

 

Whose child is that?  Is that John's brother who married Gothard's niece Olivia?

[Snarkle]

7 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

@What the Heck yelled at people to do more research because is Gil Bates is such a hard worker.

I politely pointed out that she needed to do more research into his talent for grifting.

Others agreed with me.

She flounced.

Gil, a hard worker?  Wasn't April Fool's last week?  

 

 

 

[nastyhobbitses]

On the one hand, Allie is very cute and the decorations/tutus/pink frilly shit all enhance her cuteness. I also like that she seems to have loads of personality and Alyssa encourages that. But a part of me would find it so funny if Allie turned out to be a total tomboy or a goth who hates all things frilly and pink.

As for smash cakes, I'd rather just get a nice big cake for everyone to eat and give the kid a piece to mangle, or just whip up a quick muffin/cupcake/mini pound cake with Betty Crocker frosting for the photo op. I think the pictures of babies smashing up cakes are cute (my now-21-year-old sister's cutest baby picture is her with chocolate cake all over her on her first birthday), but it seems a bit wasteful to me to give the kid a full-on, fully decorated cake. But if you can afford it, go nuts.

[Screamapillar]

Well I for one stopped at Publix on the way home and got a slice of cake with buttercream frosting, so well played everyone, well played.

Speaking of cake smashing, my nephew smashed my wedding cake. He was a little older than one at the time. It had already been cut and photographed, so whatever. My brother was holding him showing him the pretty cake and he just kind of lunged at it, drawn like a fly to a bug zapper. Toddlers gotta smash!

Can you imagine if all of Alyssa's kids are girls? The world might run out of pink puffy sparkly frilly stuff to accommodate them all! 

[iweartanktops]

I don't really care about the cake thing, and I have no idea if I would do it with my kid. Probably not, I'd likely give them a cupcake. Anyway, 30ish years ago my parents gave me my own cake to smash. They are not over-the-top people, and my "party" was super low-key from what I see in photos, but I don't know if it's really a new fad. 

I hate pink.

[GreyhoundFan]

4 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

No hate here, just mystification.  And I'm making a note to wear something that is easily washed and very hard to get stained the next time I'm invited to a baby birthday bash.  If the baby starts smashing their cake I'll also move well out of range if possible.  How very messy.

 

I do have a deep and abiding hatred for the color pink, however.  Any shade of pink.  Sorry.

 

 

I solved the former by being out of town/ill/busy when my few friends with little ones have birthday parties for the kids. I send a small gift and my "regrets" for not being able to attend.

 

I'm right there with you about the pink. My mom learned early on that just because I am female doesn't mean I love pink stuff.

[19 cats and counting]

3 hours ago, Screamapillar said:

Can you imagine if all of Alyssa's kids are girls? The world might run out of pink puffy sparkly frilly stuff to accommodate them all! 

Wait until Erin's daughter is born.  We saw what she did with the marital bedroom, now imagine what happens when there's a little girl.

Brooklyn's headflowers will put Allie's to shame.

[Fascinated]

I unabashedly and unashamedly love pink. (It suits me, too, unless it's sort of a nude hue - my husband will tell you that that shade just washes me out).  

But, I digress.  With regards to the tutus and Giant Flowered Headbands, all I will say is that Alyssa Bateseseses Webster's taste aligns with that of my daughter-in-law, whom I dearly love.  

[19 cats and counting]

@Fascinated I'm with you on the nude pink.  It washes me out (I can't wear soft neutral hue colors as I don't have the skin tone to pull it off).  The pink in Michael's bridesmaid dresses (and the beige) would look terrible on me.

And I love pink and am not ashamed to admit it.  If you work in a male dominated industry, I suggest pink office supplies as male coworkers don't tend to steal them.

[Nikedagain?]

10 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

@What the Heck yelled at people to do more research because is Gil Bates is such a hard worker.

I politely pointed out that she needed to do more research into his talent for grifting.

Others agreed with me.

She flounced.

Best phrase of the day award.

[actuallyjessica]

Wait until Erin's daughter is born.  We saw what she did with the marital bedroom, now imagine what happens when there's a little girl.

Brooklyn's headflowers will put Allie's to shame.

Hahaha headflowers made me picture a whole bouquet!